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Never-before-seen X-ray images of the Sun’s magnetic field have been released by NASA.

The dramatic pictures were captured from the international spacecraft’s Hinode Solar Optical Telescope which has been observing different layers of the sun since Septembr 2006.

It is a joint project of the U.S., European and Japanese space agencies and Britain’s Particle Physics Astronomy Research Council.

Scientists say the twisting plumes of gas rising from the Sun’s corona react with the star’s magnetic field, a process that releases energy and may power solar storms and coronal mass ejections, which in turn affect the Earth.

“For the first time, we are now able to make out tiny granules of hot gas that rise and fall in the sun’s magnetized atmosphere,” said Dick Fisher, director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division.

“These images will open a new era of study on some of the sun’s processes that affect Earth, astronauts, orbiting satellites and the solar system.”

The scientists said they were surprised and delighted by the findings which show the Sun is more turbulent than first thought.

“It’s going to put us in a whole new realm of understanding,” Golub told a news conference.

“Everything we thought we knew about X-ray images of the sun is out of date.”